Coal Update

The department for [the simultaneous creation of] energy and climate change took me by suprise when it released a statement which included the following:

The consented power stations are:

* a 2,000 MW Combined Cycle Gas Turbine power station at Pembroke, South West Wales to RWE npower

* a 900 MW integrated coal gasification gas-fired power station at Hatfield, Yorkshire to Powerfuel Power Ltd

* a 1,020 MW Combined Cycle Gas Turbine power station at King's Lynn, Norfolk to Centrica Leasing (KL) Ltd

Each power station agreed during the planning process that they will have the necessary land available to retrofit a carbon capture and storage plant for future use.

Consent was also given to build a second phase at Hatfield consisting of an integrated coal gasification combined cycle power station, which will use coal to produce hydrogen to fuel the station.

As part of the phase two process of producing the gas, the company has applied to capture and remove the carbon. This might involve piping it off-shore for long-term storage and possibly using a small volume for commercial purposes.

According to an informal rumour from somewhere, the coal plant has had construction consent but not opperating consent, operating concent may be conditional on ccs. This is a bit muddled at present but basically this coal plant is probably a lot further off being built than the govornment would like to imply and is some way behind Kinsnorth in terms of its expected construction date. So kingsnorth is still looking like the key target in terms of new uk coal.

Home del.icio.us Digg This!